Leipzig Journal;This Beer Hall Will Even Sell Its Soul to Reopen

By STEPHEN KINZER

Published: December 28, 1995

LEIPZIG, Germany, Dec. 22—
Several centuries ago, according to Goethe, the Devil brought Dr. Faust into a tradition-shrouded Leipzig drinking hall called Auerbach's Keller for a demonstration of his powers.

While rowdy students watched in amazement, he wove a spell that brought wine and champagne spilling from holes in a wooden table.

Astounded by the Devil's power, Faust agreed to make a fateful bargain with him, selling his soul in exchange for limitless knowledge.

Goethe's account of their transaction made Auerbach's Keller immortal, a powerful magnet for tourists from around the world.

But recently, as a result of a more modern form of black magic, the doors of Auerbach's Keller were locked shut. The restaurant survived nearly 500 years of wars, plagues and dictatorships, but the advent of capitalism in eastern Germany has proved too much for it.

Lawyers, bankers and court-appointed receivers are trying to negotiate a deal under which the beloved cellar can reopen, but so far they have been unsuccessful. Life-size statues of Faust and Mephisto, as Goethe called his Devil, still guard the stone steps leading down to its doors, but the dark rooms that once echoed with drinking songs are now eerily silent.

On the evening when Faust and Mephisto entered Auerbach's Keller, they found students singing a song that began, "A rat lived in a cellar nest." Many of the 74 employees who lost their jobs when the restaurant was abruptly shut in September believe that line could also describe what has happened to them.

"The place was packed every day and every night," said Ria Racz, who worked there as a waitress for 12 years. "Everything seemed to be running fine. Then one day, without any warning, we were told that it was closing. We still don't understand what happened."

In the years of Communist rule in East Germany, Auerbach's Keller, like nearly all bars and restaurants, was owned and run by the state. After Germany was unified in 1990, the Frankfurt-based real estate magnate Jurgen Schneider bought it along with several nearby buildings. He renovated the kitchen, bought new dishes and installed new furniture.

Then, one day early last year, the vast Schneider real estate empire came crashing down, destroyed by debts later calculated at about $4 billion. Mr. Schneider disappeared, hiding from the police and his creditors for 13 months until being arrested in Florida. He and his wife are now in a Miami prison, fighting attempts to extradite them to Germany.

Embarrassed bankers who lent Mr. Schneider huge sums of money without ascertaining his financial condition are painstakingly dividing up his hundreds of properties. One of Germany's largest banking conglomerates, Commerzbank A.G., emerged this year as the new owner of Auerbach's Keller.

Although several potential buyers have expressed interest in Auerbach's Keller, no deal has been reached. Part of the problem is that a group of investors who were associated with Mr. Schneider assert that they hold the exclusive right to rent the restaurant for the next seven years. They are willing to sell that right for a good price, but Commerzbank's administrators are unwilling to pay, arguing that the rental contract became void when Mr. Schneider went bankrupt.

The restaurant's 74 former employees, bitter at their sudden dismissal, are trying to determine who is the rat in the cellar nest on whom they can focus their anger. Their right to be rehired when the place reopens is the subject of another legal dispute.

"Auerbach's Keller is a gold mine," said Peter Domjahn, leader of the local restaurant workers' union. "Not a single tour group ever came to Leipzig without stopping there for lunch or dinner. It made money every day it was open. If the goal of the new owners is to recover their losses, why are they keeping it closed?"

"I realize that under our new system, profit rules the world," Mr. Domjahn said. "I'm not against that, but should people who have been working in the same place for 10 or 20 or 30 years be simply thrown out onto the street?

"This is the first experience most of these people have had with capitalism, and it hasn't exactly been a happy one. You hear them say that this could never have happened in the old Communist days, and they're right."

All parties agree that Auerbach's Keller was overstaffed and that its menu, composed mainly of tasteless boiled dishes smothered in heavy sauces, left something to be desired. "It is worth seeing, but gastronomically it just limps along, like Mephisto," according to a guide to Leipzig restaurants published last year.

The interior of Auerbach's Keller is protected by landmark preservation laws, meaning that no developer can tamper with the arched ceilings and the famous works of art inside.

They include a relief of Bacchus installed in 1530, five years after the restaurant opened, a series of large wall paintings depicting scenes from Goethe's "Faust" and a hanging wooden sculpture showing Mephisto riding a giant beer barrel borne by nymphs and cherubs.

Because the restaurant has such drawing power, it is unlikely to remain shut forever. No one, however, is willing to predict when and under whose ownership it will reopen.

"The odd situation is that it can't be opened now because no one will put up the money to run it, but every day it stays closed represents a further loss," said Michael Frege, a lawyer who has been appointed by a bankruptcy judge to mediate the various disputes.

"If the case drags through the courts, it could take five years to resolve," Mr. Frege said. "Nobody wants that. The hope is that we can have an agreement by springtime. For Leipzig to be without Auerbach's Keller for any length of time is really unthinkable."

Photo: An old painting of Auerbach's Keller, with Mephisto and Faust inthe doorway. A landmark in Leipzig, the beer hall has had to close, a victim of the burst of capitalist activity, and sometimes misbehavior, that came to eastern Germany after the collapse of Communism. (Ullstein) Map of Germany highlighting Leipzig.